TheDay.com, New London, CT: "But people who treat the poor say carbohydrate-laden diets and lack of dental care are the main culprits in the oral-health problem of that population."

HPH NOW, May 3, 2002, MPH Student Woods Uses Military Data to Investigate Oral Health Disparities: "'I thought ‘We dentists have been so successful in preventing caries (cavities) that we’ve done ourselves out of a job’,' said Woods.

Then he started working in the predominantly minority area of Codman Square in Dorchester, MA, finding notable numbers of young children with major dental problems. Some had teeth rotted to the gum, he said. Others had life-threatening abscesses that required hospitalization."

Root of dental disparity:

DailyProgress.com | Center drills down to root of children's tooth problems:

"“It doesn’t matter how much fluoride is in the water if they’re getting a poor diet of sugar and soda.” She cringes when she sees parents giving small children soda from their bottle or a can, and tells parents that bad teeth do not run in a family, but that bad habits do."

Nashville City Paper:

Tennesse is 96% fluoridated:

"What is the state of the oral health of Tennesseans?

Very poor. Tennessee consistently gets a C- on its Oral Health Report Card due to the lack of services for low-income children and the elderly. In fact, 35 percent of all retired Tennesseans have lost every one of their natural teeth."

Clovis News Journal: Serving Eastern New Mexico and West Texas:

"Two to three times a week, the 79-year-old retired dentist joins a mobile dentistry team called Educare, which travels to area elementary schools. Rozzell said the purpose of the state-funded program is to provide dental services and oral hygiene education to indigent children. Rozzell said he is able to clean teeth, apply sealants, fill cavities and even perform extractions if needed.

“We have seen an 85 percent reduction in decay among these children since we started,” Rozzell said. "

Some Gains, Some Losses in War on Cavities | theledger.com:

Gainesville, Florida, where the Florida School of Dentistry is located, is fluoridated since 1949:

"Dr. Daniela Rodrigues Silva, an assistant professor of pediatric dentistry at the University of Florida's School of Dentistry, says her experience in treating young patients bears out those numbers. 'Unfortunately, we've seen a humongous increase in cavities among those young patients at our clinic,' Silva says.

She cites the case of a 4-year-old girl she recently encountered while screening children for a Head Start program. Silva found cavities in all 20 of the girl's primary teeth."

Some Gains, Some Losses in War on Cavities | theledger.com:

"The CDC reported a 5 percent increase in cavities among children ages 2 to 5, with particularly large increases among white, non-Hispanic children (15 percent) and children living in households below the federal poverty level (13 percent)."

Palestine Chronicle: "excessive levels of fluoride are toxic, causing gastritis, ulcers, kidney failure, bone fluorisis (bone fractures and crippling), and teeth fluorsis (black lines around gums and tooth decay)"

Filling the void: "Yet many private practice dentists are reluctant to accept people who are on Medicaid, because of low reimbursement rates, red tape, complicated paperwork, slow payments and other administrative problems, according to the Washington-based Children's Dental Health Project.

The result is that only about 0.5 percent of total Medicaid spending is on dental services, the group adds."